cd-w

I really enjoyed PRGE and the AtariAge booth was spectacular! I see that tickets for PRGE 2020 are already on sale - will AA be there again? Chris

It looks like the GNU embedded toolchain is based on newer versions of the gnu software than Linaro: https://community.arm.com/developer/tools-software/tools/b/tools-software-ides-blog/posts/pre-built-gnu8-cross-toolchain-by-arm-for-the-a-profile-architecture-now-available

Nice work - I have been meaning to write this down for a long time, but never have time! Once minor point to note is that the stack grows down from the top of the memory area, and the variables grow up from the bottom and will be corrupted if they meet the stack.

Darrell - if you had been there we would have had all 4 members of CDFJ - maybe next year Chris

Can I also have one (if it is not too late): Name: Chris Walton AA Handle: cd-w Location: Seattle, WA Thanks!

I think this means it is currently out of stock Chris

It should also work on the Retron 77 console using the unofficial firmware (based on the latest Stella). Chris

The Stella emulator was recently upgraded to support Chetiry bankswitching. You can play the full game by downloading the latest Stella and using the chetiry_NTSC_STELLA.bin (or chetiry_PAL_STELLA.bin) image from this page: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/282280-chetiry-2600/ Note that you can't play Chetiry directly on the Harmony cartridge at this time. Chris

I’m looking forward to the 1yr review of your model 3 - I’m interested to know what these cars are like for daily use. Chris

Thanks for featuring my game, and for the positive comments! Hunchy II was the first full-size homebrew game that I wrote for the 2600 (after a few minigames). It doesn't have the same level of polish/sophistication as my later games (Juno First, Chetiry, Star Castle Arcade), but it's good to know that people are having fun playing it nonetheless. Have you featured Chetiry in any of your shows yet? It is now fully playable with Stella (6.0 or later) including the music, so should work with the updated Retron77. See http://atariage.com/forums/topic/282280-chetiry-2600/for Stella-compatible ROM images. Cheers - Chris

To use the approach that I am proposing, the workflow would be something like: Create a file containing the sprite data in the usual DASM format Run D00D over the data to optimize the layout Run a utility to convert the D00D output into C struct format (this would need to be written) #include the C struct containing the sprite data in your code Chris

The best way that I know to do this is the following: 1) Use D00D to optimize the data - assume the output is the following: sprite1: .byte 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 sprite2: .byte 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 sprite3: sprite4: .byte 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 2) Create a C structure to hold the data - unfortunately you do need to specify the length of each chunk of data (you could probaby write a utility to do this): typedef struct { const unsigned char sprite1[5]; const unsigned char sprite2[10]; const unsigned char sprite3[0]; const unsigned char sprite4[7]; } SPRITEDATA; 3) Initialize the structure with the sprite data (again this formatting could be done via a utility): __attribute__((used)) __attribute__((packed)) const SPRITEDATA sprites = { .sprite1 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, .sprite2 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}, .sprite4 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} }; 4) Now, you can reference the sprite data easily, e.g: // Access the data directly unsigned char x = sprites.sprite1[6]; // Access the data as an array (C doesn't do bounds checking, so this is actually accessing data in sprite2) const unsigned char *s1 = sprites.sprite1; unsigned char x = s1[6]; // Copy the sprite data to a queue myMemcpy(_QUEUE, (unsigned char*)s1, 16); // For bonus points you can also access the data as an offset from the beginning of the struct (GCC only) #define offsetof(type, member) __builtin_offsetof (type, member) unsigned char *spritedata = (unsigned char *)&sprites; unsigned char y = spritedata[offsetof(SPRITEDATA, sprite4) + 3]; // The offsets can also be held in a short array to save memory (over pointers): const unsigned short offsets[] = {offsetof(SPRITEDATA, sprite1), offsetof(SPRITEDATA, sprite2), offsetof(SPRITEDATA, sprite3), offsetof(SPRITEDATA, sprite4)};

It is possible to complete the game. Chris

Hi Thomas, There are two issues: The bankswitching code is not designed to run directly from the Harmony menu - it will currently only work when flashed direct. The tunes and high score table use the EEPROM, which is where the Harmony bankswitchoing files are stored. Both issues can be worked around with a bit of effort - the EEPROM in the harmony is much larger than required (so the data can be relocated to a higher address) and the bankswitching code can be modified to star from the menu. I won't have time to work on either issue for a while though I'm afraid. Chris

Hi Stephen Thanks for clarifying - I knew you had done work on this, but was not aware CTY bankswitching was now available in Stella. Chris

For completeness, here is the (fixed) source code and ROM images for the cutdown "GameBoy" edition of Chetiry. This version was released as an april fool back in 2011. Chris chetirygb_NTSC.bin chetirygb_PAL.bin chetirygb_SRC.zip

It is now 6 years since Chetiry was released in the AA homebrew store, and (until now) I have not made the source or ROM available publicly. The main reason is that the ROM image is not currently playable on either the Harmony cart or Stella emulator: Chetiry uses an EEPROM chip inside the Hamony/Melody to store the music and high score data. On the Harmony, this chip is used for the menu system and would be overwritten. Chetiry uses a custom bankswitching format (FA2) that is not yet emulated by Stella. The audio code in Stella has recently been rewritten, and various people have asked if the ROM for Chetiry is available for testing. As a result, I have now decided to post it publicly in the hope that this will lead to support in Stella. The files are as follows: chetiry_NOEEPROM_NTSC.bin & chetiry_NOEEPROM_PAL.bin - These ROMS will work on Harmony and Stella but with no music or hiscore table. chetiry_NTSC.bin & chetiry_PAL.bin - The full ROMS (they do not work in Stella or Harmony currently). chetiry_tunes_img.zip - The image file for the Chetiry tunes (stored in the EEPROM). chetiry_SRC.zip - The source code for Chetiry. [EDIT: 10/21/2018] Attached chetiry_NTSC_STELLA.bin & chetiry_PAL_STELLA.bin - thse binaries contain both the game and tune data. [/EDIT] Chris chetiry_NOEEPROM_NTSC.bin chetiry_NOEEPROM_PAL.bin chetiry_NTSC.bin chetiry_PAL.bin chetiry_SRC.zip chetiry_tunes_img.zip chetiry_NTSC_STELLA.bin chetiry_PAL_STELLA.bin

Thanks Nathan - nice review - I don’t think it occurred to me to add support for the genesis controller to Chetiry at the time - would probably be straightforward ... Chris

Thanks for the reviews - I’ve been waiting years to read this Chris

Vol1 is on Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1980969396

Artie can be rather blunt - not sure that would go down well with some of the more fragile members! Maybe just an Artie recommends series ... Does Artie actually play the games himself though? Chris

This feels like an Artie cartoon: 1) I was going to compare the two star castles 2) you know, the good one and the erm other one 3) but then I realised they were both ripping off Yars’ Revenge 4) So I just played that instead ...

Can’t wait for the Star Castle showdown (though I suspect I know the outcome)!

The bus stuffing fix by ZackAttack is quite difficult to use - not really possible with the BUS driver that I previously wrote. I'm still hoping for a tweak to the Harmony hardware, or that the new UnoCart 2600, will make this unnecessary ... Chris